A Banyan Tree Vision

What if every local church lived out the vision of church multiplication like a Banyan tree?

I stopped in my tracks when I saw it and let the view shape my imagination.

What I saw communicated volumes about the kingdom vision: why and how every church should be involved in multiplying healthy churches… (For more click here)

The view from my tracks was of a banyan tree in South Florida.

On a recent ministry trip to South Florida, I was hiking in a state park near the beach. The banyan tree expanded in front of me like only a banyan tree can.

The banyan tree is a native tree in South Florida, and it grows in a unique way. The branches of the tree send down aerial roots, which upon reaching ground grow to become additional trunks of the tree. In this way the banyan tree grows, eventually becoming grove-like in appearance. Banyan trees in South Florida can expand to one or two acres from a single trunk! And there can be hundreds, even thousands, of trunks in a single tree. The Banyan tree gives a whole new meaning to the phrase “branching out.”

From that view I pondered God’s vision for church multiplication.

What if every local church lived out the vision of church multiplication in this way? What if a local church would “branch out” to plant or multiply new churches or missional communities? Then, what if these new churches would take root and become an organic part – or trunk – of the growing tree? And they would also “branch out” and take root to form new trunks in an ever-expanding tree. Multiplying. Integrated. Grove-like. Connected. Branching out. Ever-expanding.

As the banyan tree grows by sending out new aerial roots from its branches, so also the Church of Jesus Christ grows by extending new churches and gospel communities, which, once they take root and grow, will also branch out into new communities. For me the view of the banyan tree shapes my vision for church plants. Does your church see that view? Does it capture your imagination? Are you shaped by that vision?

In this way the Church of Jesus Christ grows like a banyan tree to the glory of God.

CLC exists to help with that banyan tree-like multiplication. For how your church can get started in church multiplication, click here.